Japan gets new ToughBooks

Panasonic has added four new laptops to its Let's Note line in Japan. Though they're sold under the ToughBook brand here in the States, the shiny portables aren't exactly what we'd call rugged. They are engineered to survive a drop from 30 inches--about desk height--and incorporate a spill-resistant keyboard, but we've always felt the greatest strength of the Let's Note line has been the laptops' remarkably light weight. These new models are no exception: The lightest laptop of the bunch, the 10.4-inch R7, weighs just 2.1 pounds. The 12.1-inch W7 weighs 2.8 pounds with an integrated optical drive, while the nearly-identical T7 ditches the optical for a 2.6-pound weight. The 14.1-inch Y7, meanwhile, weighs just 3.3 pounds.

Given their tiny cases, it's no surprise that these laptops all run on Low- and Ultra Low-Voltage Core 2 Duo processors. Their base configurations also all include 1GB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive, and they all feature the silver exterior we've come to expect from the ToughBook line. (The only exception is the R7 Premium Edition, pictured here, which feature a new "jet-black" case.) The laptops will begin shipping in Japan throughout October and November, and with any luck they'll make it to our side of the world this year.